Council approves 7.3 per cent increase

GRAVENHURST - An extra month in the hands of the new chief administrative officer and plenty of hours’ worth of council and staff deliberation has seen an even further reduction to the Town of Gravenhurst’s 2012 budget.
By March 6, council had wrangled and debated its way down to a tax levy increase of about 8.3 per cent for 2012 over 2011. When the final document was up for approval March 20, town staff had managed to get the rate increase down to 7.2 per cent, with one last addition bringing the final accepted rate up to about 7.3 per cent.
With the 7.2 per cent increase, the average residential taxpayer would have been paying about $323 per $100,000 of assessment, up from just over $319 in 2011.
Staff had removed the summer swimming and lifeguarding programs at the Gull Lake beachfront for a savings of approximately $23,000, but at the request of members of the public and several councillors it was added back in at the last minute, to increase the rate to approximately 7.3 per cent or about $324 to $325 per $100,000 of assessment.
For complete coverage of the 2012 final budget deliberations from March 20, please see the March 28 edition of the Gravenhurst Banner.